Home Learning and Brain Smart Starts
Conscious Discipline Certified Instructor Mara Spencer and her family start every morning with a Brain Smart Start before school. Now that the family is schooling from home, they engage in multiple Brain Smart Starts throughout the day. In this webinar, Mara explains how to optimize home learning by leading a Brain Smart Start(s) of your own.
Brain Smart Starts consist of four components: an activity to unite, an activity to disengage stress, an activity to connect, and an activity to commit. Together, these four activities get brains and bodies ready to learn.
Brain Smart Starts consist of four components: an activity to unite, an activity to disengage stress, an activity to connect, and an activity to commit. Together, these four activities get brains and bodies ready to learn.
Brain Smart Starts are ideal for times of chaos, transition, or low energy/lack of focus. They are especially helpful now, when our bodies have an excess of the stress hormone cortisol and our children need connection more than ever. No matter the length of time, incorporating these four “brain smart” components into your day will reduce stress, boost connection, and prime your brains for a successful day of home learning.
Webinar Outline
- 00:02 Introduction
- 00:35 Four components of a Brain Smart Start
- 00:52 Activity to Unite
- 01:47 Activity to Disengage Stress
- 04:08 Activity to Connect
- 05:23 Activity to Commit
- 05:54 Safekeeper Ritual, our constant commitment
- 06:25 What does “keeping it safe” look like?
- 06:35 Review of four components of a Brain Smart Start
- 07:10 Make family agreements to develop own individual commitments
- 07:34 Demonstration of a Brain Smart Start with Mara’s family
- 09:30 Goodbye and Wish Well
Resource Mentions
- Guide to a Brain Smart Start for Our Day
- At Home Brain Breaks and Active Calming
- At Home Morning Meetings
- Breathing S.T.A.R.
- S.T.A.R. Breathing Tool
Helpful Next Steps
Mara Spencer
Conscious Discipline Certified Instructor
Mara McElroy Spencer has a B.S. in Family and Child Sciences and has worked in the Early Education field for almost 20 years. Mara owns and operates a fully implemented Conscious Discipline preschool/primary school, serving ages birth-1st grade. Additionally, she sits on the Board of Directors for two K-8 Public Charter Schools in Leon County, FL. She resides in Tallahassee, FL with her husband, Justin, and their four children: Mallie, Jack, Luke, and Ella Cate.
More about Mara Spencer
